My Heart is Broken

[Teddy O'Neil]

I was always very fond of Ruby's version of 'Heart', the inspirational song from the musical 'Damn Yankees', but my 78 record was broken during house removal in 1973 and I hadn't heard the song for over 3 decades! 'Heart' does not appear in the 4 disc anthology of most of Ruby's recordings, possibly because this was a charity record with proceeds going to the Horner Centre for Arthritics. Thanks to the RM website I learned that 'Heart' was available on CD issued by Vocalion (whom I had never heard of) on a compilation disc - Five Fabulous Females.
I have just received my copy from Vocalion and it is great to hear the song hasn't lost its appeal after all these years. I can play it in the car and have miles and miles of Heart!
So many thanks to Gerald and the other compilers of the comprehensive list of Ruby's recordings.

Cheers, Ted

[Gerald Lawrence]

Hi Ted, I am so glad you found the Song Listing useful and were able to get a copy of Heart. The preparation of the listing took quite a while, with all its cross-references, but it was precisely for the purpose that you put it to that I created it. Thank you for your kind comments.

Heart is a lovely song indeed, and it is in high quality on the Vocalion issue. This compilation was released before Bernie arranged for EMI to release a special Anniversary edition. When he asked Brian and me to make the selection, we were limited to 100 songs on the four CDs, and we knew that EMI had found four previously unreleased songs in their archives. As there were more than 100 released by EMI, we took into account that some of Ruby's songs were available in the shops or via the internet still to buy, so we did not include those in our list for the Anniversary Edition. The last time I checked, it was still possible to buy every one of Ruby's songs on a CD, and that is how the Song Listing came to be born.

Happy listening!

[MARTIN FOSTER]

Hi Ted and Gerald,

Hope you are both well.

Ted, glad you enjoyed 'Heart'. A very good recording with a nice arrangement.

Gerald, are Ruby's Phillips/Fontana recordings likely to be released on CD at any point?

Martin

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends,

On the subject of Ruby's recording of 'Heart'. It is strange how different stories have differing facts attached to them, as far as my memory goes, Ruby donated the royalties of 'Heart' to The Heart Foundation, but who has the correct information, maybe it's me that is wrong and not the data on the record, or the record company? Even more interesting is the fact that when they received a royalty cheque they contacted Ruby to ask her to pay the tax on the sum, isn't that unbelievable?

When I look around at today's show business I think that Ruby was even more badly managed than I ever thought. I watched Piers Morgan(????) interviewing Cilla Black last night and I was amazed by the whole programme. I hasten to add that I am NOT about to critisize Cilla in any way but when one considers that she was about the highest paid artiste in the business I start to compare her vocally, and visually to Ruby I am of the opinion that Ruby fares very well indeed, even considering their vastly different styles. Ruby's humour also stands comparison but not many people ever saw that side of Ruby, she was very funny. I know that I will be forgiven for being biased.

Kindest regards to everyone. Adios Amigos, Bernie.

[Jk]

Hi Bernie, I too was of the opinion that the record was made for the royalties to go to the The Heart Foundation, I also thought that the record I use to have of it, actually mentioned the The Heart Foundation on it.

Hello Ted, glad you got your record, enjoy it it is a lovely song.

Martin, did you get my message over the photo?

[MARTIN FOSTER]

Hi guys,

Bernie, I agree with your comments re Cilla and there is NO comparison to Ruby either vocally or visually bless her (Cilla).

John, I did receive your message thank you but for some reason it won't let me private message you on here, not sure why! If you can see my msn address on here that is also my email address.

Martin

[rbl.ca]

Hi, everyone.

I wouldn't have recognized the song "Heart" by name unless Ted had pointed out that it was from "Damn Yankees". I always thought it was "You've Got to have Heart". It was a terrific movie, and a terrific song (especially for us baseball fans, and particularly for us Yankee haters), but I can't recall the leads - suggestions anyone?

Ralph

[Jk]

Hi Ralph, is it the lead artist you are asking for? If so then these are them.

Tab Hunter ... Joe Hardy

Gwen Verdon ... Lola
Ray Walston ... Mr. Applegate
Russ Brown ... Benny Van Buren
Shannon Bolin ... Mrs. Meg Boyd
Nathaniel Frey ... Smokey
James Komack ... Rocky

Rae Allen ... Gloria Thorpe
Robert Shafer ... Joe Boyd

Jean Stapleton ... Sister Miller
Albert Linville ... Vernon

[rbl.ca]

Thanks, John.
I should have remembered Gwen Verdon, but I could just recall a pretty red-head.

Regards. Ralph

[Gerald Lawrence]

This is one of those songs where sometimes the title has some words in brackets. Another one is "(Oh Please) Make Him Jealous". Ruby's version has the simple title "Heart" on the original 78 rpm release, and that is what has stuck for the Vocalion release, presumably because this is what is on the master tapes from which the CD was made.

Regarding the donation she made of her royalties, this topic comes up fairly often! You can delve through the archives of this and the old Message Board to follow the discussion, but the answer is given accurately on my Song Listing page. While it may seem logical that she might have thought about a heart foundation, Ruby for her own reasons chose arthritis - unless Columbia got it wrong when they printed the record labels, but I would have thought it would have been fairly swiftly corrected at the time.

So the written evidence we have is that Ruby donated the royalties to the Horder Centre for Arthritics because that is what it says on the 78 rpm record. (It also says it on the B side, which was "From the First Hello to the Last Goodbye"). On the Song Listing page I have given a hot link to the home page of the Horder Centre, which is still in existence. It is probably too late now to contact them to ask if they ever received a donation from Ruby......

[Bernie Burgess]

Hello Friends,
It is certainly a very confusing situation but I am going to stick to my version of events. My recollection is that I clearly remember the incident concerning the request from the Heart Foundation for Ruby to pay the tax on the royalty cheque. I learned a very long time ago not to believe what you read in print, far too many times printed facts have been proven to be wrong, even on a record label. I flew to Belfast to see a written play on Ruby's life and career, a story that was supposed to be factual. In fact the majority of the facts in that production were entirely wrong.

On the subject of the Philips/Fontana tracks, finding who has the masters has been a very difficult task. The biggest problem is that a members of a very much younger generation hold positions of authority these days and their reaction is -"WHO?"- For example, look what happened at Guinness World Records, once they told me that the applicable department no longer existed they left me hanging. The edition of the book that has the world record in it's pages exists somewhere but despite pressing them for more information,the offices at Guinness World Records were not going to assist any further.
Gerald was fortunate enough to eventually speak to a person who was prepared to at least be a little helpful but when the trail went cold so did the assistance. The masters exist somewhere, perhaps another combined effort might be called for Gerald so we must confer and return to the fray.

Adios Amigos. Bernie.